Poole Town boss Tom Killick feels that there is plenty to be positive about as Poole continue their Southern League campaign tonight away at Yate, but also realises that his side need to improve quickly if things are to stay that way.
Despite three home defeats in a row, Poole still occupy a playoff spot – but their position in fourth place in undermined by the games in hand promotion rivals enjoy over Poole.
Speaking to All Poole Aren’t We, Killick stated: “I still feel we’ve got reason to be positive. Our league position – a lot of people externally are getting quite negative but, as I said the other day, we’re in a much better position than a lot of the other clubs.
“When you look at the 14 or 15 clubs that genuinely hopes of being in and around the playoffs, we’re not doing as well as some, but we’re doing better than plenty of others.”
“I feel that the scorelines have not reflected performances – don’t get me wrong, Weston-super-Mare was a poor performance, but am I looking at games and feeling like we are vastly inferior to the opposition? Very, very clearly no.
“Are we making mistakes, not doing as well as we can? Yes. But are we coming up against teams that are quite clearly above us in terms of ability? I feel not.
“We have to remain positive. We’ve got to start making fewer mistakes and picking up results quite quickly, we know that. I still feel there is plenty of room for optimism.”
Dolphins’ recent efforts have been thwarted with injuries and COVID absences, and Killick is again without a few players, with Will Spetch and Jack Dickson suspended.
Killick continued: “It’s not an amazing time from our point of view to be playing them – we’ve got Sean Wright and Dan Bartlett coming back from COVID – they’re COVID free but are they fit? No. We’ve then lost Will Fletcher, and with the two suspensions, we’ve got five missing,
“It’s not ideal from our point of view, but I think the players are very keen to right some wrongs, in terms of the most recent performance. Hopefully we will go there
“Playing away we’ve been better than we have at home, so we’ve got that positive. We’ve just got to see how things go.”
Yate themselves will be missing top goal-scorer Dave Sims-Burgess, who joined Vanarama National South Bath last week.
Yate enjoyed a decent run to the FA Cup 1st round, but now all focus is on the league for the Bluebirds, with the Gloucestershire outfit one of many sides with games in hand over Poole.
“They’ve beaten Salisbury and subsequently drawn against Taunton, which is not a poor result – they’ve kept a cleansheet.
“Psychologically, after an FA Cup run it might be difficult to pick yourselves up, but Saturday’s result against Taunton would suggest that they put in a strong performance.
“I just feel they’re going to be at a good level – I’ve heard some quite detailed information about them. Even without their centre-forward that’s gone to Bath, I think they’re going to be difficult opposition.”
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